Abstract
Abstract—The main objective of this research is to find a
suitable alternate solution based seed layer for the standard
RABiTS three-layer architecture of physical vapor deposited
CeO cap/YSZ barrier/YO seed on Ni-5%W metal tape. In the
present work, we have identified CeO buffer layer as a potential
replacement for YO seeds. Using a metal-organic deposition
(MOD) process, we have grown smooth, crack-free, epitaxial thin
films of CeO (pure and Zr, Cu and Gd-doped) directly on biaxially
textured Ni-5W substrates in short lengths. Detailed XRD
studies indicate that a single epitaxial CeO phase with slightly
improved out-of-plane texture compared to the texture of the underlying
Ni-W substrates can be achieved in pure, undoped CeO
samples. We have also demonstrated the growth of YSZ barrier
layers on pure CeO seeds using sputtering. Both sputtered CeO
cap layers and MOD-YBCO films were grown epitaxially on these
YSZ-buffered MOD-CeO/Ni-5W substrates. High critical currents
per unit width, of 264 A/cm (critical current density,
of 3.3 MA/cm) at 77 K and 0.01 T was achieved for 0.8 m thick
MOD-YBCO films grown on MOD-CeO seeds. These results indicate
that CeO films can be grown directly on Ni-5W substrates
and still support high performance YBCO coated conductors.
This work holds promise for a route for producing low-cost buffer
architecture for RABiTS based YBCO coated conductors.
